Boner Pills, also known by the pharmaceutical names Viagra, or Cialis are the top spenders on paid media. The ad(s) I have chosen to discuss is the NFL Viagra Commercial that aired in 2016, along with its many precursor ads from previous years. Viagra was the biggest investor in NFL air time last season, followed directly by its competitor Cialis. I chose this advertisement because of its massive impact on viewers at the time. It became an incredibly common and recognizable ad to all football fans and T.V viewers alike; exposing millions of football fans to erectile dysfunction medication. I chose to write about Viagra because as a female, erectile dysfunction medication generally is not something I am well educated on or have any consternation for in my life.
Viagra is owned by Pfizer Inc. one of the U.S’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Pfizer was established 1849 in Brooklyn NY. Starting off as a chemical manufacturing company Pfizer soon became the U.S’s largest pharmaceutical company. Pfizer company is the creator of some of our country’s most commonly used prescriptions such as the EpiPen, Xanax, Zoloft, Lipitor, Lyrica, and Viagra. Pfizer’s webpage hold countless pages of prescription drugs under their company, backed up with plenty of expertise and research in areas such as neuroscience and pain, inflammation and immunology, oncology, and more. Like Pfizer, Eli Lilly & Company, the pharmaceutical company behind Cialis is a leader in pharmaceutics in the U.S and around the world. Not much younger than Pfizer, and just as established and accredited, Lilly makes a much more apparent “promise to it’s customers than Pfizer. As opposed to their counterpart Pfizer, Lilly had a much stronger emphasis on “caring and discovery”. The vision statement from their website says “We will make a significant contribution to humanity by improving global health in the 21st century”. It is very apparent in Eli Lilly’s site that they have a lot more integrity as a pharmaceutical company than Pfizer and truly want to make a difference.
NFL – The Perfect Audience
The intended audience for Viagra is middle aged men. According to the Annals of Internal Medicine 50 is the age when male sexual function begins to deteriorate. According to a web article on Ad Age, the median age of football watchers in 2016 is 50. This makes the NFL audience a sweet spot for Viagra and Cialis. Erectile dysfunction medication can also be seen targeting the golf audience as well, with a median age of 64. Erectile dysfunction ads have become such a icon in football season, being seen even in the Super Bowl. According to Ad Age “In 2004, Levitra ran a 45-second spot during CBS’s broadcast of XXXVIII that featured former Bears head coach Mike Ditka” View the ad here.
Like many ads that air during foot ball season the Viagra ad linked above targets a male audience. In the commercial, a sexy middle aged woman lounges on a bed, wearing a football jersey, foundling a football and rambling off erectile dysfunction statistics. Similarly, advertisements for Cialis also air during the NFL season, with the same idea in mind. The advertisements include an attractive young woman out and about with a slightly older looking man. Viagra and Cialis commercials were to prevalent on T.V. during football season that many spoofs were made off the commercials. Here is a funny one by Ellen on her talk show.
Cialis Commercial “A Moment Turns Romantic” shown during a football game
The Effects of Viagra on the Body
Viagra and Cialis belong to the same class called phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors. The active ingredient in Cialis is tedalafil and sildenafil in Viagra. Both drugs only work when a man is sexually aroused. According to Dr. Abraham Morgentaler Viagra can be addictive not physically so much as psychologically. Viagra’s effect on a man’s sexual performance is so successful that people can develop a psychological dependence on the drug whether they really need it or not.
An interesting article from Everyday Health states that erectile dysfunction drugs can come with serious side effects such as hearing and vison loss and now an increased risk of melanoma. Many of the more common side effects of Viagra and Cialis are displayed with the drug in ads but do not begin to touch on how extensive the list of side effects are. Viagra has effects on the central nervous system, digestive system, and circulatory system. Common side effects include flushing or redness of the face, decreased blood pressure, priapism, headache, runny nose, ringing in the ears, indigestion, heartburn, nausea and vomiting. Viagra can also have potentially dangerous interactions with heart disease drugs such as alpha blockers, or nitrates.
Advertising techniques used by Viagra and Cialis alike are visual imagery and attention grabbers. Attractive celebrities and men and women engaging in fun date-like activities in Viagra commercials are used to make men think using these types of drugs will enhance their sex life and attract women. Viagra commercials also use statistics like “over half of men over 40 have erectile dysfunction” as an attempt to make it seem like all men with erectile dysfunction use Viagra for it. Additionally, images of relatively young and attractive women in summer dresses in vacation-like settings are presenting this information in a sexy manner.
My overall opinion of Viagra is somewhat indifferent in a sense that it does not directly apply to me, but after doing research on the drug I would not be extremely worried if a friend or family member was taking Viagra for its intended purpose. There isn’t anybody I know that I would comfortably recommend Viagra to, especially considering the target age for the drug. Otherwise, the advertisements for Viagra and Cialis tend to do a decent job at identifying all the possible side effects and warning that come along with it. There was even some recent research I found promoting additional health benefits of Viagra.
Works Cited:
A Surprising Side Effect of Viagra: Melanoma? (2014, April 08). from https://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/adam-friedman-the-skin-youre-in/viagra-use-and-the-risk-of-melanoma-is-the-risk-real-and-how-do-we-deal/
Bulik, B. S. The top 10 most-advertised prescription drug brands.
from http://www.fiercepharma.com/special-report/top-10-most-advertised-prescription-drug-brands
Crupi. A. & Anthony Crupi. (2017, July 07). Deflategate 2.0: Big-Spending Viagra and Cialis Are Pulling Out of the NFL., from http://adage.com/article/special-report-tv-upfront/erectile-dysfunction-viagra-cialis-NFL-pullout/309692/
(2016, March 29). Cialis vs Viagra – What’s the… Cialis vs Viagra – What’s the difference between them?, from https://www.drugs.com/answers/viagra-vs-cialis-3029937.html
Eli Lilly & Company. October 26, 2017, from https://www.lilly.com/
Morgentalor, Dr. Is Viagra addictive? from https://www.health.harvard.edu/mens-health/is-viagra-addictive
Pfizer Inc. October 26, 2017, from http://www.pfizer.com/
Sildenafil (Viagra) May Help Improve Control of Pulmonary Hypertension. (2002, April 2). from http://annals.org/aim
The Effects of Viagra on the Body. (2015, August 26). from https://www.healthline.com/health/mens-health/effects-of-viagra-on-the-body
(2016, October 17). Cialis, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i9vYI9lvIc
(2016, October 17). Viagra: Football, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bp2wSKv6WU
(2016, October 17). Ellen’s Viagra Commercial, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APLdlTRkkik